Top Telemarketing Interview Questions

1. How can Telemarketing be monitored:

There are various ways of tracking results. Anderson Stockley Associates can provide a manual lead sheet for future use or a computerised spread sheet could be designed to suit the needs of the client and project.Either is an excellent way of tracking future leads and results.

2. What results can be expected from Telemarketing?

Telemarketing is not an instant short term fix or solution for solving business revenue problems and all results vary according to the product or service.We always offer our advice and recommendations to ensure that any project is formulated to produce the best results.

This may be concentrated phoning in a very short period or short periods of phoning, but a longer project and will depend on project strategy. We recommend what we believe is the best way of achieving results.

3. Do ASA offer help to companies wishing to set up their own teams?

Yes. ASA are specialists in the Telebusiness sector and offer comprehensive services which include Recruitment, Training and Analytical Diagnostic Consultancy. Please visit our Training website for much more information on the Training that we offer.

4. How large is Marketing Connections?

By design, Marketing Connections maintains a call center operation consisting of 75 workstations with room for controlled expansion.

5. What types of clients do you work with?

Our clients range from venture-backed start-ups to global 50 organizations. Our services are most beneficial to businesses with high-end products and services that need to focus their sales resources on face-to-face contact, proposals, and closing business.

6. How much of your calling is focused on consumers?

None, except for calling small offices with one or two people. MCC is committed to high-end B2B calling programs where clients need to contact decision makers directly.

7. When you call, do you use my company’s name – or do you call as Marketing Connections?

When we call, we use your company’s name. We are an extension of your sales and marketing team and we represent ourselves as members of your organization to your prospects and customers.

8. Do you use an auto dialer?

We do not use an auto dialer. To provide the highest quality program possible for our clients, we need to have solid discussions with qualified prospects not volumes of calls with mechanically read scripts. We do constantly look at technology to make sure we are using every tool possible to achieve this level of service.

9. How do you charge for your services?

We offer a variety of pricing models, including fixed fee arrangements, unit pricing, hourly rates, and monthly retainer arrangements.

10. Do ASA work on commission or per appointment payment?

No. There is no doubt that pressure selling over the telephone can achieve numerous unqualified leads, appointments or sales. We are not that kind of business.

We offer a quality service using experienced staff who represent companies professionally when working on their behalf. The leads, appointments, information or sales generated are qualified and productive.

11. What is the difference between Telemarketing and Telesales?

Telesales is the use of the telephone for selling and promoting products or services to a business or consumer base.
The modern use of the word “Telemarketing” refers to anything related with the use of the telephone, including Telesales .
For example research, event confirmation or database building and cleaning.

12. How do the results of Telemarketing compare with mail shots?

Mail shots are a cheap way of achieving few results.Usually about a 1-3% response is achieved in any area where mail shots are used. Often, mail shots are not seen by the real decision maker. Compare this to Telemarketing or mail shot that is followed with Telemarketing and which focuses on the decision maker.

This ensures that a response is achieved from each call and produces positive results ranging from 15-50% in many projects, depending on the product or service.

If these result percentages are compared financially, telemarketing achieves the best returns on investment when used to promote the right products or services.

13. Do ASA give added value when delivering a project on behalf of clients?

Yes, always. We believe that every company should offer added value.This enhances the results of any project and allows for a true evaluation of results. Often spin off or additional enquiries provide valuable additional revenue from telemarketing activity.
In addition we always offer our recommendations to our clients before and after any project to ensure that there is a constant improvement in all aspects of any phoning.

ASA will not ask you to commit to long term complicated contracts. We are happy to work with you as and when required. If you like what we do and our service you will use us again.

14. What other sales and marketing services do you provide?

We can develop marketing research programs and customer satisfaction surveys designed specifically to meet your information requirements.

15. What’s the typical background of one of your sales reps?

Our reps usually have significant business experience including telemarketing, customer service, or inside sales. Most importantly, they have excellent telephone communications skills.

In fact, candidates do not get a face-to-face interview until they pass a demanding telephone screening process. Our reps typically have two to four years of college education and relevant business experience in the industries we serve – such as medical technology, high-tech, financial services and publishing. The ages of our team members range from the mid-20’s to 70’s with an average age of 40 to 45.

16. Where is Marketing Connections located?

We are located an hour north of Boston, MA, near Manchester, NH, where clients traveling by air usually arrive. Our location is a convenient day trip from Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and the greater New York area. We encourage you to visit us to meet our team and see first-hand the quality and professionalism that are the hallmarks of Marketing Connections.

17. How do telemarketing calls work?

There are several hundred telemarketing call centers in the U.S., with the majority of telemarketing calls being dialed by a computer known as an auto dialer or predictive dialer. Predictive dialers can dial 3-5 numbers simultaneously and can make as many as 500,000 calls between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.

When you answer your phone, the computer connects you to a live telemarketer who tries to sell you something. If you are not home or if the computer gets your answering machine, your number will be put back in the database to be called again later.

18. How does my number get on telemarketing lists?

You can get on telemarketing lists in many ways:

? By having a listed telephone number
? Through a reverse phone book organized by neighborhood
? When you dial an 800 number that uses an Automatic Number Identification system (ANI) to record your number
? Via credit information services, such as Equifax, etc.
? By ordering products or services from direct marketers or catalogs, whether you order through the mail, from web sites, or via 800 numbers
? By printing or including your telephone number on your personal checks
? Even by simply paying your monthly bills

19. How does the TeleZapper zap telemarketers?

The TeleZapper uses the technology of telemarketers’ automatic dialing equipment against them. When you or your answering machine picks up a call, the TeleZapper emits a special tone that “fools” the computer into thinking your number is disconnected. Instead of connecting you to a salesperson, the computer stores your number as diconnected in it’s database.

Over time, as your number is removed from more and more databases, you’ll see a dramatic decrease in the number of annoying telemarketing calls you receive.

20. How do I know when I have zapped someone?

If you answer your telephone and there’s no one there, the odds are that you just “zapped” a telemarketer. After a few weeks, you’ll notice that you are receiving fewer and fewer of these calls.

21. Why buy a TeleZapper instead of letting my answering machine or caller ID screen telemarketing calls?

The TeleZapper is the only product that emits a signal that “tells” predictive dialer computers your number is disconnected. Unlike answering machines or caller ID, once the TeleZapper’s tone is emitted, your number is removed from the computer’s call list. So, as time passes, you’ll receive fewer and fewer annoying telemarketing calls.

If the computer gets your answering machine, your number is put back into the database to be called again and again … and again. Most telemarketing calls show up on Caller ID as “out of area” or “private”. But since many callers are identified in these ways, it’s difficult to know who’s calling and whether or not you want to pick up the phone. The TeleZapper really is a better solution to keep telemarketers out!

22. Who supplies the data?

The client does. This can be bought from people like www.corpdata.co.uk, there are two main reasons for this: a) some telemarketing companies will add a margin on top and sell you the same data. b) The data is licensed to you and not the telemarketing company. No telemarkting company I know holds data inhouse of specific data.

23. What amount of time is needed for a telemarketing campaign?

I would suggest 20 days, although we do do 10 days as a minimum, this gives us the opportunity to not only get leads from those on the phone there and then but also deal with call backs and further info requests that may take time to convert, any less than this and you wil not be giving yourself the opportunity for it to succeed.

24. Should I send a mailer out beforehand?

Statistics show that a good mailer with a follow up call can provide great results, speak to someone like Hanne Widmer @ www.bluespiral.co.uk for your mailing needs.

25. How will a typical campain run?

Before a single call is made everything must be agreed by both parties, from qualification process to what is being said, communication throughout the campaign is paramount, if things are not going to plan you have to choices,

a) moan about it and blame the telemarketing company your working with.
b) work with them to find out what is going wrong, is it a bad time of year, is it that people do not really understand the product//service. There is always an answer for any campaign going wrong, you just need to find the right angle

26. What if people want info?

This can happen a lot, and it is not just a palm off, you get to recognise which are genuinely interested and which are timewasters simply by asking a few questions before you end the call, many of the products we promote are things that people will not hand a creditcard over for, theytend to be in the thousands of pounds and therefore take consideration before making a decision. Always have something you can send that will add favour to a potential client.

27. What will be said on the phone?

After some intial consultation with the client we will come up with a script. The reason for this is synergy! This way the client knows what we are saying and they are happy with the enthisis we are putting onto certain areas of the conversation, that the qualification questions we are asking are correct, and through calling we will make minor changes depending on what response we are recieving.

28. How will campaign results be reported?

On a daily basis, we will split the data into several sections. The main section will remain as it is, but we will copy and paste things like, Appointments, Short Term Leads, Long Term Leads, Info requests, and client to deal with, into seperate sections for easy access. Normally done in Excel.

29. How many calls will be made a day?

A good telemarketer will make between 100 and 115 calls a day, depending on the level of decision maker you can Expect between 20 and 45 decision maker contacts a day.

30. Who will make the calls?

Depending on experience we will put out best telemarketer on every job, and they will stay on it until the campaign finish’s or a decision is made to move another person on to it depending on level of success both good and bad.

31. How much time do you need to put together a campaign?

One working week, so we can prepare the data, brief the telemarketer and make sure everything is in place to start.

32. Are all telemarketing calls prohibited?

Certain calls are not covered by the federal registration law, including calls from political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors, and companies from which you have bought something or received a delivery in the past 18 months.

If you do not want to get calls from companies that fall into any of these groups, tell the company or charity to put your phone number on their own “Do Not Call” list. Every company and charity is obliged to keep such a list.

33. What can I do if I continue to get unwanted calls?

Telemarketing calls made to a number which has been listed on the federal registry for three months, or which are on a company’s “Do Not Call” list, violate Vermont law. If you get a call from a telemarketer that violates Vermont law, you have the right to sue the telemarketer for actual damages or $500 for a first violation ($1,000 for each subsequent violation), whichever is greater.

34. Is unwanted telemarketing a crime?

Yes. Vermont law also imposes criminal penalties on telemarketers who call a Vermont telephone number without having first registered with the Vermont Secretary of State, unless the company is a federally-regulated financial institution (e.g. a federal bank), or is already regulated by, or registered or licensed with, one of the following Vermont governmental agencies: Secretary of State, Public Service Board, Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities and Health Care Administration, or Department of Taxes.